It seems that in beautiful Romania a child’s need for protection, love, guidance and support does not exist. All a child needs is money, not someone to stand by him, not a healthy environment, just money, sent by the parents through any means.

My cousin’s mom, my aunt has recently left the country. She is now in Italy, trying to make a living there. Prior to this, they were both living with my grandmother in a commune from the Vrancea County. No real income, no real perspectives. She decided to go work abroad to be able to provide him with enough money for a proper education.

My mom and I had already decided to take him to Ploiesti to make sure he gets a proper high-school education and to help him get rid of the tiring trouble of going to a different town for classes. We decided the best way to have him transferred was to have some legal organization place him in my mothers care.

All set! We filed the request in Vrancea. Some stupid lady working at the Child Protection Office in Focsani (County capital city) delayed the action for about 3 months just because she had no idea how her job should have been done. Then the file finally got to the Ploiesti commission.

As my mother and I have the same permanent residence, we were asked to file lots of papers to prove she could take care of her nephew. And so we did! Yesterday the case was discussed by that stupid commission…And their reply? Not final yet, but still…

The child can be supported by his mother! There is no need for him to be placed in my mom’s care! She can send him money! My problem with that? Well, there is no guarantee she will have a job that will pay enough to send him money, at least for starters. There is no guarantee she will be able to keep that job. Not to mention the fact that lots of people work there illegally…The other problem, which is not financial, he is 14! He cannot take care of himself, go pick up the money and establish the budget for the whole month! He might need documents that my mom won’t be able to sign, so it will take an enormous amount of time to get things done and papers sent, then translated into Romanian….

You might wonder why they reached this conclusion…Well they are obliged to pay 800,000 ROL per month to each minor placed into someone’s care (less then 30 dollars). We don’t even want that money, but you cannot choose to receive it or not. The law has been recently changed and all should receive this sum…So the conclusion is that a child’s protection only revolves around the money that child has! Pathetic!

Of course he will still leave with us and he will still go to school in Ploiesti. And we will go through a whole lot of trouble for any documents signed by his mother that he might need…But I wonder, how many people trying to help a child would do the same?